This invention involves creation, display and traversal of multi-dimensional content arrangements using a computer.
Content will be considered within this document to refer to at least one instance of text, visual content, audio content or audio-visual content. Visual content as used herein includes still video, motion video and interactive video. Still video is composed of a still frame. Motion video is displayed as a temporal succession of still frames. The exact storage and transfer mechanisms of motion video data are available in a wide variety of mechanisms which are well known to those of skill in the art. Interactive video incorporates at least still video content with an interactive response from at least one user. Certain implementations of interactive video incorporate motion video content as well as interactive user response.
FIG. 1 displays a prior art one-dimensional table of content. Such prior art implementations can be found in a variety of settings, such as channel guides for show times on cable or satellite television in a variety of locations throughout the United States. A video display device enclosure 10, with a display device 12, interfaces with a selector device 18 by a physical transport mechanism 16 to an interface 14.
Relevant prior art display devices 12 are also widely varied in form and specifics of operation. Relevant prior art display devices 12 may present black and white or color images. Relevant prior art display devices 12 may support either a vector or raster format. Relevant prior art display devices 12 may present images in either a 2-D, 3-D or multi-dimensional presentation view or collection of views.
Relevant embodiments of selector device 18 include but are not limited to contemporary television channel selectors, home entertainment center remote controls, computer pointing devices including but not limited to 3-D and 2-D mouse-style pointers, pen tablets, track balls, touch pads and joy sticks. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the selector device communicates via physical transport mechanism 16 with an interface 14 housed in enclosure 10. Relevant physical transport mechanisms 16 include but are not limited to infra-red, micro-wave and other similar wireless transport layers, as well as wires and optical fiber. The mechanism by which communication is carried out based upon the specific physical transport mechanism employed is not relevant to this invention and will not be discussed for that reason. Additional 10 devices such as printers and keyboards may be attached to various relevant, prior art systems. Keyboards may house touch pads and mouse sticks which in certain cases are the relevant selector device of that system.
Typical prior art implementations often incorporate a time setting 20 shown here at the top and center of the display area. This can be altered using the selector device 18 to increment forward or backward in time, sometimes traversing days. Note that time setting 20 often incorporates a day and/or date component as well. The time setting 20 often denotes a half hour viewing period starting the displayed time, often referred to as a time slot.
Typical prior art implementations are further composed of multiple rows of information depicted as 22, 30 and 32, each representing specific entertainment events. Each row is typically, further composed of a channel component 24, a show component 26 and a show time component 28. The exact ordering of these components within each row may vary from one implementation to another. The channel component 24 often incorporates a numeric and a call sign designation. The show component 26 often incorporates notations indicating whether there is more detailed programming information available regarding the entertainment represented. The show time component 28 often incorporates a starting time and an ending time.
Typical prior art implementations are used in television systems involving many different channels, frequently supporting over one hundred channels broadcasting simultaneously. It is common for such systems to possess many more channels than can be displayed at one time. Traversal of such implementations is supported by use of specific selector device 18 manipulations, which either change which channels are displayed, the time slot starting time, or trigger playing the content of the entertainment designated by a row.
While such display technology represents a distinct advance over previous approaches to representing and traversing entertainment offering, there are some inherent frustrations. It is difficult if not impossible to perform searches of the entertainment schedule database. The arrangement is fixed, unable to be configured to reflect what the user considers most relevant. One user may focus on team sporting events, while a different user is strongly interested in gardening and travel shows, and yet another user favors news shows and court room news shows. When the user interests cross more than one standard topic area there is no mechanism to support selection and access by users today. What would be useful is a flexible, user configurable interface to a sorting engine, which could sort an entertainment content database, based upon user selected fields of relevance which could then be traversed with content to be selected and played.
FIG. 2 presents a display of a prior art two-dimensional table of contents. Various simulated buttons appear on the display file 52, edit 54 and 56. There is also a background area 12, a button area 50, a vertical slider bar area 70, and a vertical scroll bar 72. A horizontal scroll bar area 74 and a horizontal scroll bar 76 are also provided to move the display area in a horizontal two-dimensional manner. Various columns 60, 6263, 64 and 66 are also provided to organize information in two-dimensional columnar fashion and similarly, there are rows provided to further organize information. Finally, tabs 80, 82, 84, 86 and 88 are also provided to further organize information into tabbed partitions giving the illusion of another dimension of organization. However, all of the organizational devices are predefined mechanisms that must be carefully defined to match the information in a manual manner by a user. The two-dimensional organization is clumsy and bulky and would not lend itself to multi-dimensional, free form information.